Today's computer systems are becoming increasingly sophisticated, permitting users to perform an ever increasing variety of computing tasks at faster and faster rates. Data storage and retrieval are two issues involved in nearly every computer operation.
Hard copy and soft copy are terms generally applied to distinguish between printed materials and electronic copies. To be non-volatile, the soft copy/electronic copy is traditionally stored in an appropriate data storage media.
Traditional forms of electronic data storage rely upon writing media set down with rigid devices, such as the magnetic media utilized in hard drives, floppy drives and magnetic tape. In a great many instances, a printed representation of the stored data is created, for example, in a textual document, graphic, chart, table or photograph.
Unlike a computer, a printed document does not require a continuous source of power to be enjoyed. Documents printed on paper are also portable and easily passed from one person to another. Yet, in many instances it is desirable to provide the recipient of a hard copy with the corresponding electronic soft copy as well. At least two issues arise in such a setting.
First, the provider of the data must have at his or her disposal an appropriate media for receiving the electronic copy of the information—a removable hard drive, floppy disc, cassette tape, writeable DVD or CD, zip drive, ram drive or other physical device capable of holding electronic data.
In most cases, such devices must be acquired for a price from a third party supplier or manufacturer. More specifically, regardless of a desire to do so, the general user is not capable of rendering a storage device on his or her own.
The manufacturing costs and technology involved in fabrication place the generation of traditional data storage devices out of the realm of financial feasibility for the typical user. Although costs for general storage devices have decreased, a user may incur significant aggregate costs over time in continuously utilizing electronic file storage devices.
Second, transferring a second item (i.e., the device containing the electronic copy) in addition to the paper hard copy presents its own problems. The recipient must take care not to loose, or misplace the electronic copy. Yet, in many cases the electronic copy is not stored, carried with, or otherwise tied to the paper copy. Frequently paper and electronic copies are stored in physically different archives.
Another undesirable factor inherent in separate physical storage devices, such as floppy discs or other devices, is the creation of excess waste. When a user saves an electronic copy of a document or file to a floppy disc, the unused portion of the disc is wasted. This represents further waste of the resources used in creating the disc itself.
Printer devices such as ink-jet printers and laser printers have become increasingly more common and specialized in terms of their quality of resolution. Photo-quality images such as would have required a photo lab a few years ago are now commonly printed by computer users. With laser printing generally being on the order of 1200 DPI (dots per inch) and ink-jet reaching 4800 or greater, the quality of either system has advanced significantly from the early days of fuzzy dots suggesting the outlines of letters, characters or other shapes. By and large the granularity of ink-jet printing has provided an extremely cost effective way to render sharper images.
The direct result of such printer device capability is that hard copy versions of data are increasingly more precise and capable of conveying visual information with greater resolution and clarity. To some extent, this leads users to be more prolific in their printing efforts, both for their own use as well as in printing for dissemination to others.
If the user is working with multiple versions of a document, image, picture, or other physically tangible form of the data, the issue of a paper copy and a separate electronic copy may become both complex and confusing. As such, a user may open an electronic copy that does not correspond to the print copy he or she is working with. This introduces an opportunity for error within the data as the user makes changes. In addition, there is the prospect of additional time lost in sorting and comparing electronic and hard copies. These issues of lost time and data error potentially carry an economic cost.
Hence, there is a need for a data storage device that overcomes one or more of the drawbacks identified above.